By rejecting Olympic bids from Doha and Baku to host the 2020 Games the International Olympic Committee has sent a strong message about its priorities. It is a message that will resonate particularly loudly at Fifa headquarters in Zurich.

The IOC was faced with its toughest hosting decision in many years when it met in Quebec on Wednesday. On the table were five bids, all of them problematic.

On one side were Doha and Baku, flush with mineral wealth and ambition, but with major questions over their capacity and, in Doha’s case, carrying reputational baggage.

On the other were three problematic bids from more established cities. Madrid wants to host the Games despite facing economic crisis. Japan wants to use 2020 as a catalyst for recovery from earthquake and tsunami. Istanbul brings infrastructure challenges, and is currently proposing the unrealistic double of staging the European Championships and the Olympics within three months.

But faced with a choice between economic uncertainty and the unknown impact of Doha and Baku flooding the bidding race with unlimited marketing budgets, the IOC went for the former. Only three cities will go forward into the weakest summer Games field in some time.

The IOC insist that the decision was not political, and published a 90-page technical report to prove it. The reasons given for avoiding Doha and Baku are sound. But there is no question that politics, and a desire to protect the IOC’s credibility, played a major part.

The decision of the executive board was emphatic. The Associated Press reports that while all 12 board members voted for Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo to proceed, and all 12 opposed Baku, Doha was ejected by nine votes for three. We can assume that IOC President Jacques Rogge’s will has been done.

Baku was always unrealistic. The city will stage Eurovision next week, but providing a rider for Englebert Humpedink and friends is a long way from staging an Olympics.

Doha was always the more sensitive issue. The tiny Gulf state faces legitimate questions about its ability to stage the Games, but with its capture of the 2022 World Cup its claims could not be entirely ignored.

So the IOC entered into a technical process designed to flush out weaknesses. It found plenty, with the primary reasons for concern the climate and the impact on athlete health and television scheduling.

Doha proposed to stage the Games in October, avoiding the summer heat that, according to the IOC’s report “would not allow the Games to be held” in its traditional July-August window. (FIFA’s technical inspectors raised similar questions you may recall, but were ignored by their executive committee.)

This only half satisfied the IOC. They note that the air-conditioning systems promised by Doha are unproven, and that athletes would require weeks of expensive acclimatisation to prepare.

The report also found that Doha’s budget would be “significantly higher than any recent host city”. Given estimates of Beijing’s spending, we have to assume whatever number Qatar had in mind is eye-watering.

Most damaging of was the impact on broadcasters.

The technical report states that staging in October would mean the Games would pass up their guaranteed primacy in the summer holiday schedules. With established team sports playing in Europe and the US, the Games could become a “weekend Olympics”.
Less exposure means smaller audiences and lower commercial income. The need to stage 16 outdoor sports early in the morning to avoid soaring temperatures would also mean fewer spectators and lower audiences.

This ultimately was all the excuse the IOC needed. It seems that for all Qatar’s wealth, the commercial impact on broadcasters and the IOC weighed heavily against it.

The decision might seem clear cut but it was sensitive enough for the technical inspectors to pass on a final call. While it recommended Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo be accepted as candidates and Baku be rejected, it left the Doha decision to the IOC board.

It did not hesitate, though Doha will view its three votes of support as a core of support that it will seek to build on when, inevitably, they return with a bid for 2024.

The IOC has watched the fallout from Fifa’s decision to step into the unknown with Qatar and learned the lesson. The reputational impact for football’s world governing body of that decision still resonates 18 months after it was made. (Just this week Sepp Blatter further delayed the reforms he was forced to introduce to deal with the crisis of credibility following the World Cup vote.)

The official message from Quebec yesterday was concise. Doha is too small, too hot, and too expensive to bid for the Olympics. The unspoken word was equally clear: it is also too rich to risk letting them to try.

The air conditioned stadiums is obviously the biggest factor for the footballers. No one can say for sure if they'll be able to pull it off or not. I'm not worried about the training because it's Qatar and they'll have built fine indoor facilities with little problems. We have plenty of them here in a much smaller country (population wise) and a much much poorer country.

Might be problematic for fans of course. The heat is immense. I'd be more worried about them then the footballers.

The air conditioned stadiums is obviously the biggest factor for the footballers. No one can say for sure if they'll be able to pull it off or not. I'm not worried about the training because it's Qatar and they'll have built fine indoor facilities with little problems. We have plenty of them here in a much smaller country (population wise) and a much much poorer country.

Might be problematic for fans of course. The heat is immense. I'd be more worried about them then the footballers.

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Have heard from reliable sources (architects that were involved in bidding) that the engineers that said they could air condition the stadiums are now backing down from that claim, and they won't be able to. (in Qatar)

Have heard from reliable sources (architects that were involved in bidding) that the engineers that said they could air condition the stadiums are now backing down from that claim, and they won't be able to. (in Qatar)

FIFA will make a huge amount from the world cup so why should they care?

Anyway, by 2022 who knows how important the world cup will even be. The Champions League could be streets ahead by then.

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It's only 10 years time. With a weaker European championship, and improved performances from South American nations as well as the rest of the world, I think they World Cup could be more important than it is now.

Tokyo looks like the obvious choice. Spain doesn't have the money and Istanbul is a dangerous place.

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Choosing the olympics host isn't as political as world cup bidding but it is riddled with cliques. There is a very big latin block that would get behind Madrid but I cannot see a second Western European host in three, the fourth European host since 1992 - the French, Italians and Germans are all interested in hosting in the near future so won't want their chance gone through too many recent European hosts.

At this stage it is for Istanbul to lose, I am surprised the Americans didn't put Chicago forward again as they did for the 2016 running.